What it Says in the Castlebar and Mayo Papers

May 16th, 2001

Connaught Telegraph

The Mayo News

The Western People

Condon set to leave post after 17 years. The Connaught Telegraph this week.

Mr. John Condon is leaving his post as town clerk of Castlebar Urban Council after 17 years in the hot seat. The Tipperary-born official has been selected as one of the six new senior executive officers appointed to Mayo County Council as part of sweeping staff restructuring within the organisation. He will step down from his job at Marsh House over the coming weeks to take up his new responsibilities. The other five senior executive officers appointed were Mr. Martin Keating, housing officer, Mr. Paul Benson, town clerk, Ballina Urban Council, Mr. Pat Cummins, environmental officer, Mr. Padraig Flanagan, planning officer and Mr. Sean Smyth, finance officer. The six new officers will be assigned to the six new directors of services who were appointed some weeks ago. They are Mr. Alec Fleming, Mr. Peter Hynes, Mr. Seamus Granahan, Mr. Joe Byrne, Mr. Joe Loftus and Mr. John Coll. Mr Fleming has been appointed town manager for Castlebar; Mr Hynes is town manager for Westport; and Mr. Granahan is town manager for Ballina. It is understood the appointment of six new senior executive engineers will be announced before the end of this week or early next week.

Fisheries Board objectives to £40m. sewerage plan.The Connaught Telegraph this week.

The future development of Castlebar, Mayo's growth centre, hangs precariously in the balance. Strong opposition is being mounted to the £40m. plan to upgrade the local sewerage and waste water facilities which serve an extensive area of the county. The North Western Regional Fisheries Board has submitted a detailed objection to An Bord Pleanala seeking the rejection of the environmental impact statement in respect of the badly needed project. A joint application was made to the planning board by Mayo County Council and Castlebar Urban Council for approval of the statement to pave the way for the expansion and upgrading of the town's wastewater works at Knockthomas, off the old Turlough Road. The fisheries board is not satisfied that the new plant will fully address their concerns in regard to the 'devastation effect' over-flows from the existing plant is having on fish life in the Castlebar River and surrounding lakes.

Celebration to mark De La Salle's vast contribution The Connaught Telegraph this week.

The end of an era in the history of education in Castlebar is to be commemorated in a special way next weekend. The De La Salle Order, at the forefront of providing a valued education to boys in the community over a period of 112 years, severed its links with the town last August in an emotional departure. Now, in a fitting tribute to the Order's long and distinguished service, members of the local De La Salle Association have organised a commemoration weekend to take place on Saturday and Sunday next, May 19th and 20th. Past pupils, former and current teachers as well as brothers who worked in St. Patrick's National School and St. Gerald's College will gather for a reunion in Pontoon Bridge Hotel on Saturday night. This will be preceded by the Castlebar De La Salle Association's annual golf classic at Castlebar Golf Club being run by Mr. Tommy Carney, vice-principal of St. Gerald's College.

Review calls for management changes at Knock Airport The Mayo News this week.

A review of operations at Knock Airport, prepared for the Minister for Public Enterprise, Mrs. Mary O'Rourke, has criticised what it terms the unrepresentative structure of the management of the airport and says that this could hinder its future development. The review makes the point that the airport's deeds of trust do not allow for full representation of the local community in management, a view frequently expressed by various development agencies in the West region and especially in Mayo over the past few years. The use of the airport's State grants for marketing to reduce landing charges at the airport, mainly for the benefit of Ryanair, is also questioned.

£60m needed to implement plans of Belmullet Task Force The Mayo News.

Total funding of approximately £60 million would be needed to implement the costed recommendations of the Belmullet Task force, set up following the closure of the Warner factory in the town with the loss of 113 jobs. Mary Coughlan, Minister of State at the Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and the Islands and Eamon O'Cuiv, Minister of State for Rural Development, met with former employees of Warner at the weekend to discuss the recommendations of the task force, which was initially set up by Minister O'Cuiv. Of the costed £60 million, £25 million is to be provided from the existing funding commitments of various bodies, leaving £35 million, or almost £6 million per annum to be raised over a six-year period. Both ministers told the workers that they were immediately committed to implement the task force recommendations for which existing resources are available.

550 Mayo people die from heart disease each yearThe Mayo News this week.

The Irish Heart Foundation today launched Happy Heart Weekend 2001 - the foundation's major fund-raising event, which will have nation-wide support from17th to the 20th May. Happy Heart Weekend gets tremendous support from the people in Mayo every year. Thanks to the hundreds of volunteer sellers in the county, and the support of the Mayo people who give so generously every year, the Foundation's programmes continue. Happy Heart at Work is a programme to help 350,000 Irish employees in over 600 companies choose a healthier lifestyle and employers to create a healthy work environment. In County Mayo we have introduced a healthy eating programme for staff in Ballina Beverages and Mayo General Hospital. "We have helped many community groups get more active with the Happy Heart Life-style Challenge: Doona Community, Ballincroy, Mount Jubilee Community in Bangor Erris, Mna na Gaeta Mor, Drum, Belmullet as well as with staff in Allergan Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Westport."

Plan to boost organic food production The Western People this week.

The Western Development Commission is about to launch an action plan to promote the Western region as the country's prime location for the future expansion of organic agri-food production. The WDC is the semi-state body responsible for promoting the integrated social and economic development of the Western region. The strategic plan is contained in a report due out next week - "Blueprint for Organic Agri-Food Production in the West" - which is the first comprehensive study of the organic sector ever completed in the country. Backed by extensive research of The National Food Centre, Teagasc and Cera, the report demonstrates that consumer demand for organic food is growing strongly in Ireland and Europe. It sets out a costed, prioritised plan to enable producers and processors in the Western Region to capture the maximum share of the domestic and export market.

Balla TV adjustment causing interference The Western People this Tuesday.

Reception of Ulster Television (UTV) in parts of Mayo has vanished from its usual slot following adjustments at the Balla deflector system in recent days. Local television dealers in the South Mayo region have been inundated with call-outs since the channel went 'blank' last week. UTV had occupied the Channel 24 slot while TG4 (TnaG) goes out on Channel 23. It is recommended that there should be a two-channel spacing on the band. The end result of the one-channel gap was that the UTV signal was coming across with the 'herringbone' pattern effect while the much stronger TG4 signal did not suffer in the process. A decision was taken to move UTV up to 35. But this has now created a new wave of problems as most video recorders and satellite systems also operate on Channel 35. The move has led to wholesale interference with video recorders. "I believe they should have left the whole damn thing alone" said a local TV dealer at the weekend. "The older video recorders are easily adjusted but these modern yokes have coding systems and unless you have the book and the code you are wasting your time. Nine out of ten people haven't a clue where they put their guide book and code number."

Garda warning on spiked drinks The Western People this week.

Young people, and particularly girls, attending discos and pubs have been warned to keep an eye on their drinks at all times because of the danger that they could be spiked. The warning comes after reports of an incident in Ballina where a woman's drink was doped and following on reports from a number of towns all over the country of drinks being tampered with. In the Ballina incident the woman attended a disco and was later removed to the Mayo General Hospital Castlebar. Following the incident a Garda said that young people, particularly in the West of Ireland, were too trusting when they were out in venues frequented by large numbers of people. He said young people should be wary about leaving drinks on tables or counters and should be conscious of their own safety at all times.

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